UK NEWS

KIRSTY: MY RADIO SHOW WON’T DESERT ME WHEN I’M NO LONGER YOUNG

Kirsty Young

Monday March 31,2008

By Gavin Docherty

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FORMER news presenter Kirsty Young views her Desert Island Discs job as her pension – as no one can criticise her looks as she grows older on radio.

The Stirling-born blonde, back with Crimewatch tonight on BBC1, is also critical of broadcasting dropping female presenters when they get older.

“They’ll have to prise me out of my wheelchair when it’s time for me to leave Desert Island Discs,” she said.

The former Channel Five newscaster believes that, when she ages, Crimewatch will drop her.

“I can age happily on radio and nobody will see it, ” she said: “A male presenter wouldn’t think that way. Sometimes people ask: ‘Do you think there is ageism in broadcasting?’ There probably is when it comes to women. You either widen or you wizen.”

When she took over in 2006 from Sue Lawley, Kirsty, 39, described getting the job as an
honour.

“It’s a revealing show about people and a great format,” she said.

“It has been going for 67 years. I am the fourth presenter after Roy Plomley, Michael Parkinson and Sue Lawley, who did it for 18 years.

“It is a unique broadcasting experience and presenters don’t give it up easily.”

While critics saw her arrival as a dumbing down of the show, Kirsty maintains her favourite guest so far has been Raymond Tallis, Professor of Geriatric Medicine at University of Manchester, and a Consultant in Health Care of Older People at Salford Royal Hospitals Trust.

She said: “He had fearsome intelligence and warmth. But it is also nice to do stars like Paul Weller.

“Some are too self-regarding and don’t have a sense of humour about themselves. But most are fascinating.”

“When you talk to someone about their life and motivation you understand them and start to like them.”

Mother-of-two Kirsty, married to hotelier Nick Jones, started her career on BBC Radio Scotland.

After a brief stint with ITN in 1999, she returned to Five as TV’s highest paid female news presenter on £500,000 a year.

On the Radio 4 show, guests choose eight pieces of music, the book and the luxury item they would want if stranded on a desert island.